Japan Scrubs Epsilon Launch at T-19 Seconds

An early morning (12:45 am EDT. 1:45 pm Japan Standard Time) launch of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket was scrubbed at T-19 seconds, due to what was described as an “attitude abnormality” which triggered an automatic stop.

It was not immediately clear from JAXA’s press release whether the rocket was determined to simply be in a bad mood, perhaps due to Miley Cyrus and the VMA awards, or whether there was an actual problem with sensors which control the vehicle in flight.

In either case, the maiden launch of the new three stage small solid booster carrying the Spectroscopic Planet Observatory for Recognition of Interaction of Atmosphere (SPRINT-A) telescope from the Uchinoura Space Center will be rescheduled at a later date.